We all make various acquaintances throughout our lives—people who come into our circle for a season and then move on. With some, we’re content to let them go. But with others, we’re not. Once an acquaintance turns into true friendship, we hold on more tightly to that friend. A friend is a favoured companion for whom we feel affection or esteem. Why is a friend favoured? Most likely, it has much to do with how we feel when we’re with him or her. A friend accepts us as we are and is patient with our faults. A friend points out our strengths and rejoices at our successes. A friend’s presence and listening ear fill a void in us and give our lives a sense of validation and greater depth.
Do you have such a friend? Do you know how to be that friend? These resources can help you recognize the need for friendship and develop the attributes that will make you a treasured friend to others.
A friend is always loyal,
and a brother is born to help in time of need.
(Proverbs 17:17 NLT)
A sermon will not meet our needs—we need someone to hear, someone to feel the blows in our life, someone to help us cushion the heavy weight when it drops down on us. We need to assimilate into the body of Christ.
When you take time to listen to others without criticizing or lecturing you’re providing a safe and honest environment. We all need a place of refuge.
Friends are essential. They provide comfort, encouragement, and strength.
There’s a big difference between empathy and sympathy. To sympathize is to feel for someone. To empathize is to feel with someone.
A positive attitude is based on a choice, not on feelings. Too often we make our attitude the victim of our feelings and think we can have a positive attitude only when we feel positive.
The quality that distinctively sets apart believers as followers of Jesus is not a pithy bumper sticker or a fish emblem dangling from a necklace or a gilded dove pinned on the lapel. These are only symbols of our faith. The true mark of a Christian is love.
Paul’s relationship with Timothy goes back to Paul’s earliest days as a missionary. Paul and Barnabas visited Timothy’s hometown of Lystra on Paul’s first journey around AD 47.
James encouraged us to prevent verbal fires from burning the forest around us. And yet, he gave no checklist, no tear-out sheet, and no three-step solution. Thankfully, the Bible isn’t silent about what we should and should not say.
When someone hurts you deeply, it’s easy to feel justified in holding a grudge. But in this message, Chuck Swindoll warns us that holding onto resentment doesn’t just injure our relationship with the other person…it damages our relationship with God.
For many of us, our busy schedules filled with appointments and obligations keep us occupied to the brink of breakdown. We don’t have time for self-reflection or to take note of triggers and internal alarm bells telling us we’re not OK.
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